It's all About the Beach

RSPB Mersehead Blog 20^th – 26^th August 2022

We are excited to be taking part in the Marine Conservation Society’s Great British Beach Clean again this year. The Great British Beach Clean is a week-long citizen science event, where hundreds of beach cleans take place up and down the country and data is collected.

Last year an average 100m stretch of Scottish beach contained:

• 346 items
• 10 plastic cotton bud sticks
• 3 single-use plastic shopping bags
• 101 plastic/polystyrene pieces
• 70% of Scottish beach litter collected made of plastic/polystyrene.

Join RSPB Mersehead and the D&G Eco-Warriors on Saturday 17^th September for a beach clean at Mersehead and help keep Scottish beaches clean.

The UK’s rarest amphibian, the Natterjack Toad can be found at RSPB Mersehead. Now that the breeding season has come to an end, the adults have dispersed and will be intently feeding in preparation for hibernation. When buried in the sand they are surprisingly difficult to spot.

Whilst surveying the beach for natterjack toads this week, we spotted this black plastic lid which highlights what our wildlife is now forced to share their home with. Plastic bottles in particular get blown together, become trapped in a corner and then buried. One crunch of plastic underfoot can reveal a hidden world beneath the sand. 

It is interesting to see the beach change with the tides and the wind. A century ago, the land extended a further 5km out into the Solway and we often find old clay field drains washed onto the shore. The below is an excellent example we don’t often see, where the line of tiles still buried beneath the sand can be clearly seen.

A bed of Common Glasswort has started to grow out on the sandflats which we have not seen before. This might indicate a slight change in tidal patterns across the sandflats. A similar plant, Sea Sandwort can be found growing in thick beds across the front of the sand dunes above the average high tide line. Both plants are adapted to surviving in this harsh salt rich environment by having fleshy leaves which store water.

Common Glasswort

Sea Sandwort

With the Mersehead holiday cottages fully booked for summer don’t miss out on the opportunity to stay at Mersehead during the winter months of November and December when the reserve is home to thousands of Barnacle geese and internationally important numbers wintering wildfowl. Check out availability for Shelduck and Barnacle through the hyperlinks.

Rowena Flavelle, Warden

Announcements

Upcoming events:

*Flooding - Please note that Mersehead nature reserve is prone to flooding during periods of high rainfall and/or strong winds and tidal surges. To avoid disappointment at these times, please contact the reserve in advance of your visit by email in the first instance at mersehead@rspb.org.uk or check the RSPB Dumfries and Galloway Facebook Page for daily updates.